You can see that the figure of the hamza(t)
is related to the short vowel preceding it. This is explained in detail
here.

Pronouncing a still hamza(t)'< may be approximated by saying an
extremely short a
(or any other vowel.) If you can say an a
and terminate it before it leaves your throat (zero duration,) you will
have mastered the still hamza(t).

However, if the 'alifis the first letter of a word, it must be
a hamza(t);
a long A denoting 'alifcannot come
first in any Arabic word. The difference between اand أ
when they are the first letter of a word was explained in the previous
page.

'al

اَلْ

'al

أَلْ

'is

اِسْ

'is

إِسْ

'un

اُنْ

'un

أُنْ

Arabic words cannot begin
with a "still" letter (a letter that is not followed by a vowel); this is
why the اhamza(t) is added in front of certain types of
words that otherwise would be beginning with still letters.

A common terminal structure in Semitic nouns
is a long A vowel followed by a weak letter (-aaw
or -aay).
In Arabic, the final weak letter of such structures is almost always
turned into a glottal stop or hamza(t).
Hence, the structure -aa'<ــاء iscommon in Arabic
nouns.

*Note: the classical teaching of Arabic
grammar considers the original
endings of these three nouns to be -aaw
not -aay.

The final hamza(t)
of the combination-aa'<
is often dropped in the modern spoken dialects
so that it becomes just-aa.

When a long A vowel (aa)
occurs terminally in any word, it will often not get full pronunciation
but it will have shorter duration than usual. This
shorter duration can be described as a middle duration between the
durations of a short A (a)
and a long A (aa).
However, it
will often sound closer to the duration of a short A than to a long A. This is
why a terminal aa is called
in Arabic a shortened'alifأَلِفٌ
مَقْصُوْرَةٌ.

The other long vowels (eeandoo) will also be
shortened when they occur terminal in words, and they will often sound closer to
the corresponding short vowels too (iandu).

►Waaw
&
Yaa'<

A letterوor يfollowing another letter can be denoting
a long vowel or not depending on the short vowels. A long vowel-denotingوor يmust be still (not followed by a vowel)
and preceded by the corresponding short vowel.

The
tied taa'<
الْتَّاْءُ المَرْبُوْطَةُis
always preceded by a short A (-at);
it occurs
in nouns (and adjectives) and often serves as a
feminine marker in singular
nouns, but
it can also occur in verbids andirregular plural nouns
without being a feminine marker. This kind of taa'<
is dropped from pronunciation or
pronounced as-h rather
than-t
when it is the last thing pronounced, but it is pronounced fully as-t when it is followed by other talking. This is
similar to the French "liaison."

The
open taa'<
الْتَّاْءُ
الْمَفْتُوْحَةُoccurs
in the end of some conjugations of
perfective verbs and pronouns, but can
also occur at the end of some rare nouns as a feminine marker (e.g. بِنْتٌ, أُخْتٌ). This kind of taa'< is
always pronounced -t.

No Pause

Pause

-at

-at

ـَت

-at

-ah / -a

ـَة

Doubled letters

One last thing remains about Arabic
transcription, which is this mark:ّx

It is called shadda(t) شَدَّةٌ= "stress." It indicates
double consonants with no vowel in between
(i.e. the first consonant is still).

Accent and Stress

Accent is just as
important in Arabic as in English. In English, it is usually impossible to
tell which syllable of a word should be stressed, and English is
especially complicated in this, since the stress can fall on virtually any
syllable, whereas in most languages there, are restrictions on where
accents are allowed to fall.

The best way of
getting a sense of the stress patterns of any language, of course, is to
listen to native speakers and to build up an intuitive sense of rhythm for
the language. This is just as true for Arabic as for any other language.
But there are some clear guidelines about Arabic stress.

The first thing
to note is that Arabic syllables are divided into two kinds: long and
short. A short syllable is simply a single consonant followed by a single
short vowel. The word kataba
= "(he) wrote"
for instance, is composed of three short syllables: ka-ta-ba.
Any syllable that is not short is considered long.

There are various
ways a syllable can be long: a consonant plus a long vowel; a consonant
plus a diphthong; a consonant followed by a short vowel followed by
another consonant. For instance, kitaab
= "book' has two syllables, one short ki-
and one long -taab. Another example: maktaba(t) = "library" has three syllables. The first
one is long
mak-, the second short -ta-,
the third short -ba. Finally, take maktoob
= "written;" it has two long syllables mak-
and -toob.

Now, the basic
rule of Arabic stress is this: the accent falls on the long syllable
nearest to the end of the word. If the last syllable is long, then
that syllable is stressed: kitaab,
accent on the last syllable. If the second-to-last syllable of a
word is long and the last is short, then the second-to-last
syllable is stressed: 'aboohu
= "his father," accent on the second-to-last syllable. If there is
no long syllable in the word (like kataba),
then the accent is on the third-to-last syllable. This will be the case
with the great majority of past verbs, since these usually take the form
of three consonants separated by short vowels (kataba,
darasa,
taraka,
and so on - all accented on the first syllable).

Last point: the
accent is not allowed to fall any further back than the third syllable
from the end. So if you have a word of four (or more) short syllables, the
stress has to fall on the third syllable from the end. For example: katabahu
= "(he) wrote it" has four short syllables; the stress will therefore fall on
the third syllable back: katαbahu.

While we're on
the subject of accent, we should note one other thing: in Arabic every
syllable, long or short, should be clearly and distinctly pronounced,
given its due weight. In this Arabic is like Spanish, and not like American
English. Syllables do not disappear or get slurred just because they are
unstressed.

Rules of Pause

In Arabic, the
pronunciation of word endings differ when they are followed by other
talking (the state of junction الْوَصْلُ)
from when they are the last thing pronounced, or when they are followed by
a pause (the state of pauseالْوَقْفُ).

We have seen an example of
this already when we talked about the pronunciation of the tiedtaa'< ـَة
, which
is pronounced
-at when not
terminal in pronunciation, and
-ah or
-a when
terminal in pronunciation or followed by a pause.

Another important rule
of pause in Arabic is that any
terminal short vowel of any word must be dropped from pronunciation
when followed by a pause.

For example, a terminal
-lu
, -ba,
or -ni
will be pronounced as follows:

Pronunciation in state of junction

(not
last thing pronounced)

-lu

-ba

-ni

Pronunciation in state of pause

(last thing pronounced)

-l

-b

-n

Note that the rules of
pause regard only the pronunciation but not the transcription
of any word ending.

The rule of dropping a
terminally pronounced vowel regards only the short vowels, but not
the long vowels. We mentioned before that terminal long vowels are usually
shortened in pronunciation, but this happens in all states not only at
pause.

In Arabic terminology,
letters that are followed by short
vowels are called "moving letters." Letters that are not followed by short
vowels are called "still letters."

The rule says that the
final letter pronounced of any word must be "still" and cannot be
"moving." A final moving letter must be turned into still by dropping the
short vowel following it in
pronunciation (which is not a
letter itself short vowels are not letters in Arabic).

This is the classic Arabic
saying:

"Arabs do not stop on a
moving"العَرَبُ
لا تَقِفُ عَلَىْ مُتَحَرِّكٍ.

Exercise

Try reading the following words on your own,
then you
can hear them by clicking them. (Ignore the rules of pause only for this
exercise.)